


Birthday Candles

by Emily_Faye



Series: Collected Short Fiction (2000s) [3]
Category: Bridge to Terabithia (2007), Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson
Genre: Anniversary of Character Death, Canon Compliant, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-06
Updated: 2014-04-06
Packaged: 2018-01-18 07:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1420423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emily_Faye/pseuds/Emily_Faye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been two years since Leslie died. On his birthday Jess tells May Belle about the greatest birthday he ever had, and what he wished for on his candles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthday Candles

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Fanfiction.Net on April 9, 2008.

BIRTHDAY CANDLES

* * *

 

Jesse Aarons's house was dark. Not that he noticed. He was too busy looking at the white farmhouse across the road. The one with the golden living room he had helped paint. The same room that held both the best and worst day of his life. The house she had lived in. God, he missed her!

Two years. Two lonely years. The years without her. He so wanted her to be looking at him from that upstairs window, he so wanted to hear her high tops on that drive. He so wanted to see the blonde hair, those gorgeous blue eyes, that shining smile. He longed to hear that scrappy dog yip as she came to his house. He wanted to relive the time he had given the dog to her, to see her smile, to hear her laugh, to feel her hug.

Jess wanted to see his best friend again.

No, he couldn't see Leslie Burke again. She hadn't moved away. No, she hadn't moved away, but she was gone. Gone from him.

Leslie Burke was dead.

And it was his fault. All his fault. He deserved this pain. If he had only invited her…

The screen door opened.

"SURPRISE!" Yelled the Aarons family.

Jess forced a smile. This had been a lot of work for his struggling family, he knew.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Jess, happy birthday to you!" His sisters sang.

There was a cake in his father's hands as he came out of the kitchen. A chocolate cake with sprinkles.

_Leslie's favorite…_

"Make a wish Jess!" Maybelle said, a grin on her pretty little face.

He smiled at his younger sister, and then looked into the candle's flames. He knew his wish would never come true. But he could hope that somehow…

_Somehow what, Jesse? Somehow they can resurrect Leslie that the past to years will be a horrible dream, that you'll die and your family will feel no pain? Yeah, right._

Closing his eyes, he blew out the candles.

"What'd you wish for, huh?" Joyce Ann, the youngest asked.

"None of your business, Joycie." He teased, but Maybelle and Jack knew what the boy was most likely wishing for.

"Yum…" Joyce Ann's eyes followed the cake as Mary Aarons cut it.

"You wanna know what I wished for Annie?" He asked jokingly.

Since Joyce Ann was only four, she didn't hear her brother's teasing tone.

"What?" She asked excitedly.

"That my annoying little sister didn't drool in my birthday cake." He laughed.

The little girl pouted. "Humph!"

Jess tried to enjoy his cake, but found his mouth dry, and his mind wandering to the blonde he missed so much. Usually the pain was dull and hardly existent, (he still missed her, of course, but the pain simply wasn't as fresh.) but today was different.

"Jesse, you've hardly touched your cake. Are you alright?" Mary tried to sound nonchalant, but there was an edge and worry to her voice that everyone in the room, even Joyce Ann, caught.

"Fine." His tone was clipped and dull.

Parents exchanged a worried glance.

The cake was cleared, and the present came.

"Happy birthday son." Jack said gruffly as he handed the new teenager a square package wrapped in green paper.

As he pulled it off, he saw an all too familiar piney box.

_Please, no. Anything but hers…_

Jess finished removing the wrapping and saw the insignia:  _McMillan Art Supplies_ in the corner. Just like the one…the one from two years ago…

_Mom and Dad wouldn't do this on purpose, would they?_

As he clicked open the two identical brass latches, an eerie feeling of Deja Vu washed over him.

Inside was a set of paints exactly like the ones from  _her._ There was a white piece of paper on top.

"We didn't have enough money to buy you a new kit, so we filled yours." Mary said.

_They never did listen…_

"Did you guys put this in here?" Jess held up the paper.

"It was in there. We figured it was something of yours." Jack shrugged.

Slowly he opened it. It had never been touched, he knew it.

_Les, why did you do this to me? Why did you let me find it now, when I'm missing you so much?_

He saw some all too familiar handwriting. It warmed and chilled him at the same time. The image of the crayon drawn Leslie flashed in his head.

_**Happy Birthday Jess!** _

_**I hid this note so you would find it when I wasn't around. It's for one person, you know? Of course you do, you're smart like that.** _

_**I don't know if I ever told you this, but I didn't have many friends back in Arlington.** _

_You didn't, but your Dad told me. AT YOUR WAKE, Leslie Sophia Burke!_ Jess thought. He continued reading.

_**All the girls thought I was a weirdo; they called me names, like how Janice calls me beanpole. My parents worried that I spent too much time alone. So you can imagine they were thrilled that I finally found a friend. A best friend. I must admit, they were a little surprised that you were a boy, but it was okay with them, as long as I had a friend.** _

_**Jess…there's more. The main reasons I wrote you this letter and hid it here: 1. I wanted to wish you a happy birthday, and 2. I wanted to tell you something I didn't have the guts to tell you in person. Here goes…** _

_**I think I may like you as more than a friend. Please, please don't be angry with me if you don't feel the same, but I felt bad not telling you. If you don't feel the same, please don't bring it up, okay? And please Jess; please try not to be angry with me.** _

_**Terabithia wouldn't exist without you. I couldn't exist without you.** _

_**Your Best Friend,** _

_**Leslie** _

His mother's voice brought him back from the memories of the blonde's face and voice.

"Jess, honey, are you okay?"

 _No…this can't be!_ He thought in horror.  _She_ _ **can't**_ _have felt the same way as you, before you…It's just not fair!_

"No." He croaked, and shoved the paint set off his lap, running at breakneck speed out the door.

"What in the world…" Jack mumbled.

"Momma, Daddy, didn't you know?" Maybelle whispered.

"Know what, baby?" Mary asked.

"That paint box was empty for a reason." The brunette's voice was low and solemn. "That paint set…was a gift from Leslie on Jess's birthday two years ago. He emptied it in the creek she drowned in after she died."

"My God." Jack moaned.

Brenda put her head on the table.

Mary began to cry silently. Ellie put her arms around their mother.

"Who's Leslie?" Joyce Ann asked. "Is she Jess's girlfriend? Did they have a fight or something?"

Jack's eyes turned cold. He stormed up the stairs. Ellie paled. Mary cried hard and loud. Brenda stood and took Joyce Ann into the living room. She was talking quietly to the little girl, trying to explain something she herself did not understand.

As for Maybelle, she raced after her brother. She knew Jesse could be found on a bridge.

The bridge to Leslie's Terabithia.

Sure enough, he was there, knees pulled into his chest, face buried in his jeans, in the middle of the redwood bridge. Maybelle knew it wasn't gold and magical for him today. Today it was bleak and dark.

"Jess?" She approached him slowly and calmly.

"Go away Maybelle." His voice was husky from crying.

"But I'm the Princess. Can't the Princess go to the wonderful world of Terabithia?"

Jesse's head shot up. His eyes were swollen. "Nothing is wonderful about Terabithia! Terabithia is a forest, Maybelle, and nothing more. We're too old for it. Some dumb forest can't solve our problems! If I'd never gone to Terabithia, she'd…" He stopped.

Maybelle ignored his brother's wishes and sat down beside him. "But Jess, if you'd never gone to Terabithia, you would've never met Leslie. Didn't you ever think of that?"

Instead of answering his sister's question, he asked her one.

"Do you want to know what my best birthday was?"

The girl nodded.

"That one, two years ago, my eleventh birthday. The one with Leslie. And not because of the paint set, or the fact that she gave me more attention and thought than I had ever got on a birthday. Do you know what the greatest gift I've ever received is?"

She shook her head.

"Terabithia. You know why, May?" A small smile crossed his mouth.

"No, Jess, I don't."

"Because Terabithia gave me my first real friend."

Silence.

"Jess," Maybelle said cautiously after a while.

"You loved Leslie, didn't you? And I mean, like how Momma and Daddy love each other. More than a friend."

He smiled at her. "I did, May, and I still do. And you know what? I always will."

About five more minutes of silence passed.

"Go on home Maybelle, and tell everybody I'm okay. I gotta tell the Terabithians why I haven't been visiting them. And I've gotta apologize the Queen for letting her kingdom go unprotected for quite a while."

"Okay." She rose and walked away. When she was almost off the bridge when Jesse called her.

"Maybelle, tell Joycie something for me, would you please?"

She turned. "What?"

Jess smiled softly. "Tell her I wished for Leslie's forgiveness on my candles, and that she knew everything I never told her. Also tell her I won't be wishing for that anymore."

"Why not?"

He smiled for real this time.

"Guardian angels know everything about the people they teach."


End file.
